HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH SMALL BIRDS: PHOTOGRAPHY top pro tips (using my Canon R5)

You are one of the best sir , i love the way you explain thing and make them so easy to understand
How can i know where to look for birds i live in israel and we dont have the variety like in your area

One problem i'm having is that often the birds are not in the sunlit parts of the trees in early morning, and my photos of these birds in the shade or dappled light are not coming out sharp. Even some that are partly lit. I wander if i'm shooting too high shutter speed (1/2,000-1/2,500). I noticed you said you bumped up your speed from normal and ended at 1/1,600 so that will be my next experiment. I'll try saving my fast shutter speed specifically for action in well lit areas..

Wow! Perfect video for me! Literally in the middle of processing my small bird photos as I watch this! Can't wait to see what tips you bring! Always learning great stuff from you!💛

Thanks for all nice tips. I would love to know more about AF settings..... what to choose in different situations....... I will lokk for your other videos.

Thank you….very helpful information I will apply to improve my photos.

Love the Black Throated Blue photos. One of my favorite warblers, such cool birds. I have been a hunter and bird watcher for a long time and my full time job is as a photographer and videographer, but just recently combined hobbies and got into bird photography, your channel has been an incredible resource. Thank you for all the helpful info!

Thank you , Simon . Very insightful videos . It is time to put your ideas to test.

Thanks for the tips

Sir, which tripod and tripodhead do you use for bird photography. i am a great fan of yours. thanks in advance, sir.

Your videos have helped me a lot improve my bird photos and fast thank you! Upgraded from a D3200 to a D750 so I wanted to try birds again since my older camera wasn’t great for birding and my new camera had better focusing capabilities and I wanted to utilize my 200-500mm more. Aiming towards birding and portrait photography in tandem. So far I’ve taken photos of Osprey’s, Hairy woodpeckers, Black capped chickadees, waxwing, northern flickers and blue herons. Im up in Alberta so I may try the mountains again soon. Definitely going to keep watching your content!

I am not a bird photographer but after watching your videos, I tried to capture a pair of Bluebirds nesting in a birdhouse I installed earlier this year. They are too fast for me to try and track with my 500 mm so I used zone focus, high speed shutter, 1/2000 sec., f/8 and Auto ISO on my EOS R. I shot from a tripod about 70 feet away. Field of view gave me about a two feet space in front of the house opening with a shaded background. The Bluebirds would slow and often flutter just in front of the house. This was my opportunity and I blazed away at 8 frames/second. About 25% of the time, I got useable images and culled these to ones with sharp focus, pleasant wing positions, bright colors or interaction with other birds. I could never have gotten these without the tips and techniques you generously give us. A BIG thank you, sir! 

This same technique works on hummingbirds except I'm shooting from about 15 feet away. The detail the 500 captures is very amazing. Depth of field is very shallow so I'm shooting at f/11 or f/16 at 1/800 or 1/1000 second; freezing the wing motion is not important to me so long as I get the body or head in sharp focus. Covering the feeder's holes will direct the bird to the desired hole for focus. They are quick and I sometimes miss the shot when they momentarily hover just in front of the feeder. Photographing these birds has been really fun and a good challenge.

Simon....this is great video to start with for small birds...can you make another video on how to find small birds in forest for photography...thanks

Inspirational. Every video makes me want to go outside. And so I will :) Thank you.

Thank you!

Great tips! I enjoy hearing the birds and seeing those birch and spruce trees so common in Eastern Canada.

tips on how to attract birds would be great. where i live there just so many people walking and walknig their dogs, it disturbs the small birds a lot.

As ultra beginner it helps me to practice by outside dinning areas, where there’re a lot of small birds and they aren’t afraid of people.

simple direct to the point tips .. keep sharing videos please.. beautiful photos!!

I've had a love/hate relationship with small bird photography and the first tip I've adopted is auto ISO - this instantly improved my "keepers" - I will now progress to improving backgrounds, lighting effects and hand on exposure compensation dial (I think that's a brilliant idea). I'm looking forward to watching and learning from your range of videos.

Love your videos Simon!